Sonos Roam 2 evaluate | Macworld

If it ain’t broke, don’t repair it. Sonos’s authentic Roam good speaker was launched again in 2021, and it was top-of-the-line transportable audio system we’ve ever seen, offering superb sound high quality in a extremely compact design that additionally managed to squeeze in helpful options comparable to wi-fi charging and even assist for Wi-Fi and AirPlay for Apple units. The brand new Roam 2 doesn’t try to tamper with that profitable formulation, nevertheless it fine-tunes plenty of options comparable to its set-up and tuning course of, and supplies extra easy controls.

Accessible in a wide range of colours–together with purple, inexperienced, blue and plain outdated black and white–the Roam 2 appears nearly an identical to its predecessor (and the unique Roam and Roam SL fashions are nonetheless broadly obtainable on-line, so ensure you select the Roam 2 when shopping for).

The compact speaker is 168mm tall if you stand it upright, 62mm huge and 60mm deep, and weighs about the identical as a tin of beans at 0.43kg. It’s not fairly pocket-size, however it would match simply right into a backpack if you’re out and about. It additionally has a sturdy IP67 ranking for resistance to water and dirt, which permits it to be submerged in 1m of water for as much as half-hour with out harm, so it’s nicely suited to life open air or on the seashore.

The compact design means there’s not a lot room for a big battery, however the Roam 2 ought to final for as much as 10 hours with music enjoying at round 50% quantity. It wants to face upright for wi-fi charging, as the ability circuits are within the base of the speaker, whereas the amount, playback and microphone controls sit on the highest. Nonetheless, somewhat set of rubber toes assist you to flip the speaker onto its aspect and lay it flat if you happen to favor, and there’s a USB-C port on the again that can be utilized for charging as nicely (with a USB-C cable included within the field). The Roam 2 begins at $179/£179 (at the moment the value is marked all the way down to $143/£139 on Sonos’s web site). It’s additionally potential to purchase the Roam 2 with an elective wi-fi charging pad for $228/£228 and there’s an Journey Set with two Roam 2 audio system obtainable for $358/£358–though if my math is appropriate that’s precisely the identical worth as shopping for the audio system individually, so there’s not a lot of a saving there.

As you’d count on, the Roam 2 helps Bluetooth–up to date to five.2–and it now has separate buttons for Energy and Bluetooth pairing, that are simpler to make use of than the fiddly multi-function button on the unique Roam. Getting began continues to be somewhat fiddly, although. You may press the Bluetooth button on the again of the speaker to rapidly pair through Bluetooth, however you actually need to obtain the Sonos app for iOS or Android to be able to set the speaker up correctly. The app has its personal set-up course of, which makes use of an audio-PIN–a collection of chimes–to detect and hook up with the Roam 2 through Bluetooth at first, and you might be then prompted to enter your Wi-Fi password to be able to additionally join the speaker to your property Wi-Fi community. Nonetheless, our workplace router transmits separate networks on the two.4GHz and 5.0GHz frequencies, and this appeared to confuse the Sonos app–which has acquired a number of criticism following a current replace–so we needed to spend a while altering the Wi-Fi settings on our iPad to be able to join through Wi-Fi. However, as soon as that was accomplished, the Roam 2 labored rather well, and its assist for AirPlay signifies that connecting it to extra Apple units was rather more easy.

Similar to its predecessor, the Roam 2 supplies superb sound high quality for such a compact speaker, particularly when utilizing the upper bandwidth that’s obtainable with a Wi-Fi connection. It does a superb job with the sonic mashup of Sturgill Simpson’s Sing Alongside, laying down the grinding, fuzzy guitars that type the bedrock of the sound, whereas the fizzing EDM keyboard wail by means of the air with arm-waving vitality. It’s even bought a reasonably respectable bass beat for such a small speaker, letting the digital bass on Billie Eilish’s Dangerous Man bounce together with a relaxed, swaying rhythm. It additionally pulls out the crisp finger-snaps and ticking percussion that give the music a barely erratic, nervous vitality. Switching to a Bluetooth connection causes the sound to lose somewhat readability–however that’s a limitation of Bluetooth fairly than the speaker itself, and the Roam 2 can go head-to-head with any transportable speaker of this measurement and weight.

See how the Sonos Roam 2 compares to different AirPlay audio system in our round-up of the Greatest AirPlay Audio system for iPhone.

Must you purchase the Sonos Roam 2?

The Roam 2 won’t be a vital improve for homeowners of earlier fashions, however this light-weight speaker nonetheless punches above its weight in relation to sound high quality. Its sturdy and light-weight design is nice for out of doors use, nevertheless it additionally supplies wi-fi and AirPlay assist for if you get again dwelling.